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Joseph Skipsey
Joseph Skipsey (March 17, 1832 - September 3, 1903) was a working-class English poet.Selected Poetry of Joseph Skipsey (1832-1903), Representative Poetry Online, University of Toronto, UToronto.ca, Web, Dec. 17, 2011. Life Overview Skipsey was born near North Shields, and from childhood worked in the mines. He published a few pieces of poetry in 1859, and soon after left working underground page 346and became caretaker of Shakespeare's house at Stratford-on-Avon. During the last 30 years of his life he published several volumes of poetry, including The Collier Lad and Carols from the Coal Fields; and he edited some volumes for the "Canterbury Poets.".John William Cousin, "Skipsey, Joseph," A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature. London: Dent / New York: Dutton, 1910, 345-346. Wikisource, Web, Mar. 1, 2018. Youth Skipsey was born on 17 March 1832 at Percy, a parish in the borough of Tynemouth, Northumberland, the youngest of the 8 children of Isabella (Bell) and Cuthbert Skipsey, a miner. In Joseph's infancy his father was shot in a collision between pitmen and special constables during some labor disturbances.Hooper, 320. Joseph began working in the coal mines as a "trapper" at seven years of age. He had no schooling, but taught himself to read and write, starting with discarded advertisements and playbills and going on to read Shakespeare, Blake, Milton, and Pope. He soon began to write poetry, and published his first poems in local newspapers.Joseph Skipsey, GeraldMassey.org. Web, Dec. 26, 2013. Career In 1852 he walked most of the way to London; and after finding employment connected with railway construction, and marrying his landlady, returned to work 1st at Coatbridge in Scotland for 6 months, then at the Pembroke Collieries near Sunderland, and subsequently at Choppington. In 1854 he married Sara Ann (daughter of Benjamin and Susan Hendley), the proprietress of the boarding-house at which he was staying in London. In 1859 he published a volume of Poems, no copy of which seems extant (cf. pref. to Miscellaneous Lyrics, 1878). The book attracted the attention of James Clephan, editor of the Gateshead Observer, who obtained for him the post of under storekeeper at the Gateshead works of Hawks, Crawshay, & Sons. In 1863, after a fatal accident to 1 of his children in the works, he moved to Newcastle-on-Tyne, to become assistant librarian to the Newcastle Literary and Philosophical Society. The duties proved uncongenial, and he returned in 1864 to mines near Newcastle, remaining at work for various coal firms until 1882. Subsequently he obtained lighter employment. From 1882 to 1885 he and his wife were caretakers of the Bentinck board schools in Mill Lane, Newcastle. From September 1888 to June 1889 he was janitor at the Armstrong College (Durham University College of Science). Meanwhile his poetic and intellectual faculty steadily developed, and his literary ambitions were encouraged by his friend Thomas Dixon, the working-man of Sunderland to whom Ruskin addressed the 25 letters published as Time and Tide by Weare and Tyne. Skipsey published Poems, Songs, and Ballads (1862); The Collier Lad, and other lyrics (1864); Poems (1871); and A Book of Miscellaneous Lyrics (1878, re-issued with additions and omissions as A Book of Lyrics, 1881). There followed Carols from the Coalfields (1886); and Songs and Lyrics (1892). Skipsey's published work soon received praise from critics of insight. D.G. Rossetti commended his poems of mining life. A Book of Miscellaneous Lyrics was appreciatively reviewed in the Athenaeum (16 Nov. 1878) by Theodore Watts-Dunton. Oscar Wilde likened his Carols from the Coalfields to the work of Blake. In 1884-1885 Skipsey acted as 1st general editor of the 'Canterbury Poets' (published by Walter Scott of Newcastle), and wrote rhetorical and discursive but suggestive prefaces to the reprints of the poetry of Burns (2 essays), Shelley, Coleridge, Blake, and Poe. A lecture, The Poet as Seer and Singer, was delivered before the Newcastle-on-Tyne Literary and Philosophical Society in 1883, and was published in 1890. In 1880 Dixon had brought Skipsey to London and introduced him to Burne-Jones, to whose efforts the grant of a civil list pension of £10 (raised in 1886 to £25, with a donation of £50 from the Royal Bounty Fund) was largely due.Cooper, 321. On 24 June 1889 Skipsey and his wife were appointed custodians of Shakespeare's birthplace at Stratford-on-Avon on the recommendation of Browning, Tennyson, Burne-Jones, John Morley, Dante Gabriel Rossetti, [William Morris, and other literary men of eminence. But he soon grew impatient of the drudgery of acting as cicerone to miscellaneous tourists, and he resigned the post on 31 October 1891 (cf. Henry James's story, "The Birthplace," in The Better Sort, 1903, which was suggested by a vague report of Skipsey's psychological experience at Stratford-on-Avon). From then Skipsey and his wife subsisted in the north on his pension and the assistance of his children, with whom they lived in turns. Visits to the English Lakes and to Norway (with Newcastle friends, Dr. and Mrs. Spence Watson) varied the seclusion of his last years. His wife died in August 1902. He died at Gateshead, in the house of his son Cuthbert, on 3 September 1903, and was buried in Gateshead cemetery. 2 out of 5 sons and the eldest of 3 daughters survived him. Writing Skipsey's poems were mainly lyrical, although he occasionally attempted more sustained flights, and they show the influence of Burns and Heine. He is at his best in the verse which was prompted by his own experience as a pitman. He acquired the habit of carefully revising his work, but he failed to conquer a native ruggedness of diction. De Chatelain translated his 'Fairies' Parting Song' and other shorter poems in his 'Beautés de la poesie anglaise,' vol. iii. A projected 'History of Æstheticism' proved beyond his powers. For a time he put faith in spiritualism, conceiving himself to be a clairvoyant, and he left some unpublished writings on the subject. Recognition In recognition of his literary work, Skipsey was awarded an annual Civil List pension of £10, later increased to £25. A portrait of Skipsey was painted by a German artist for Wigham Richardson, a member of a firm of shipbuilders of Walker-on-Tyne, and hangs in the Mechanics' Institute there. Publications *''Lyrics''. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK: T. Pigg, 1859. *''The Collier Lad, and other songs and ballads''. Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK: Forster, 1864. *''Poems''. Blyth, UK: W. Alder, 1871. * A Book of Miscellaneous Lyrics. Bedlington, UK: privately printed by George Richardson, 1878. *''A Book of Lyrics: Including songs, ballads and chants. London: D. Bogue, 1881. *Carols from the Coal Fields, and other songs and ballads. London: Walter Scott, 1886. * ''Songs and Lyrics: Collected and revised. London: Walter Scott, 1892. *''Selected Poems of Joseph Skipsey'' (edited by Basil Bunting). Sunderland, UK: Ceolfrith Press, 1976. *''Selected Poems of Joseph Skipsey (1832-1903)'' (edited by William Daniel McCumiskey & R.K.R. Thornton). Gosforth, UK: Rectory Press, 2012. Except where noted, bibliographical information courtesy WorldCat.Search results = au:Joseph Skipsey, WorldCat, OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc. Web, Dec. 26, 2013. See also * List of British poets References * . Wikisource, Web, Mar. 1, 2018. Notes d External links ;Poems * Selected Poetry of Joseph Skipsey (1832-1903) (2 poems) at Representative Poetry Online *Skipsey in A Victorian Anthology, 1837-1895: "Mother Wept," "The Dewdrop," "The Butterfly" * Joseph Skipsey at PoemHunter (6 poems) *Joseph Skipsey at Poetry Nook (33 poems) ;Books *Works by Joseph Skipsey at Internet Archive * ;About *Joseph Skipsey (1832-1903): the 'Pitman Poet' at gerald-massey.org,uk * Skipsey, Joseph Category:English poets Category:English miners Category:1832 births Category:1903 deaths Category:19th-century poets Category:English-language poets Category:Poets Category:Working-class poets